p.s. I love cranking up the DPI on the mouse on the fly when playing arti... I can move my cursor across the entire screen corner-corner with a 1" movement of my hand.. then toggle the DPI back down to aim at the new target.

If you are accurate and coordinated with spotters, it's insanely effective.

If you're just popping off without a good team or platoon, it's a massive waste of time and credits.

Take the reload time to move around a bit, since counter-arty at that level can be devastating. You get a whole minute between shells, you can scoot quite a bit in that time. Just put the foot on the gas the second after the gun fires, though, in case they're watching your tracers. My method is shoot-pivot-haul ass for at least 50 meters, usually towards open ground (avoiding shrub-hunters) then look for a new spot, or just stay in the open if the screen kept the enemy scouts out. Find a new target or re-focus on the same one again, and repeat.

I own the S-51 as well, and love it for what it is - but beware the frustration of arty as you have little hope of saving bad teams from themselves. I went 3 for 3 losses today when, especially in two of them, I could do no wrong with my hits (insta-killed a ST-I, their best tank in a tier 9 match, early, plus two more - yet we still lost the first game).

The S-51 has splash damage like you've never experienced if you haven't played higher tier arty on other lines, so as a safer default - like these guys said - aim through them, not down on top of them.

But just as my GW Panther went, this awesome arty may have to go, too - I refuse to keep watching my high tier tanks do stupid stuff when I either can make it (if anyone would spot past the half-way line on the map), or already made it, so much easier for them.

There are just too many drooler pubs playing to give up a top-tier heavy slot to them so that experienced arty can enjoy their roles anymore.

I have the GWPanther as well as the gwtiger. I prefer the panther though the crew on the tiger is not up to par yet. I think I have gunner/commander at 100, loader at 90 and others creeping up from 75.
30+ second reloads hurt when damage is minimal.
as mentioned, without a decent team arty is wide open to a quick death. The Panther has a little speed on it, the Tiger just lumbers along waiting for a t50 to shoot its ass.

with the latest update the arty mod no longer works. i miss the time to target calculator.

LOL Boss, you might get a complaint about me soon xD ... Was platooned with a couple friends and one of the friends was in a Tiger II, the other friend and I thought it'd be fun to see what would happen if we went in with tier 1's... The Tier 1's got TK'd, and we all got reported, no way of knowing how far it'll go... Was meant as a joke :) And our team got steamrolled, 2 tiny tanks didn't make a difference

LOL Boss, you might get a complaint about me soon xD ... Was platooned with a couple friends and one of the friends was in a Tiger II, the other friend and I thought it'd be fun to see what would happen if we went in with tier 1's... The Tier 1's got TK'd, and we all got reported, no way of knowing how far it'll go... Was meant as a joke :) And our team got steamrolled, 2 tiny tanks didn't make a difference

No notes yet, but yeah, it's kind of insulting to start the team down two useful slots, and contributes to poor morale from the very start. I don't suggest doing it. If you must goof off, I always suggest a training room. I beat up on my 13 year old daughter in training all the time, I'll go in with my E8 against her Stuart, and let her pound the crap out of me while I just try and frustrate her... so she learns how to attack, how to hide when I start hitting the ground around her, and how to get behind me and do the circle of death when possible.